The current worldwide demand for aluminum and the large amount of energy required to refine and place the raw material into usable form make it desirable to reuse and recycle as many as possible of the tremendous number of aluminum cans and containers which are used every day, by the consumer public, and then discarded, the user having consumed his or her beer, soft drink, or other food material.
To collect and to recycle economically used aluminum cans and containers, requires an apparatus which is capable of distinguishing aluminum items from all other municipal trash materials. In addition to recognizing the aluminum items, the apparatus must be capable of separating out the aluminum items from the other trash items and materials without having the other materials mixed in with the separated aluminum items since this would preclude successful recycling of the aluminum.